BROOKS, Charles, clergyman, born in Medford, Massachusetts, 30 October, 1795; died 7 July, 1872. He was graduated at Harvard in 1816, and, after officiating as lay-reader in the Protestant Episcopal church, became pastor of the 3d Congregational church in Hingham, Massachusetts, 17 January, 1821. In 1838 he was chosen professor of natural history in the University of New York, and in November, 1839, sailed for Europe, where he passed four years in the study of animals. Shortly after his return failing eyesight compelled him to resign his professorship. He was an advocate of the Prussian educational system, and was the means of improving the New England public schools. He also aided in the establishment of normal schools, a work completed by Horace Mann. He was a member of the peace society, and an advocate of the temperance reform and the African colonization scheme. He published "History of Medford" (1855); "The Christian in his Closet"; "Daily Monitor"; "Family Prayer-Book"; "Elements of Ornithology"; "Introduction to Ornithology"; ten volumes of biographies; a paper on the state sanitary survey; a report on the Middlesex County tornado of August, 1851; a treatise on "Peace, Labor, and Education in Europe"; and several pamphlets and sermons. He also contributed to periodical literature.